Elementary Art Students Create Escher Tesselations
Bluestem Elementary art students have been learning about the art of M.C. Escher and Tessellations.
Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) is one of the world's most famous graphic artists. His art is enjoyed by millions of people all over the world, as can be seen on the many web sites on the Internet.
He is most famous for his so-called impossible structures, such as Ascending and Descending, Relativity, and his Transformation Prints, such as Metamorphosis I, Metamorphosis II and Metamorphosis III, Sky & Water I and Reptiles.
His transformation prints where created by first forming a tessellation. Tessellations here mean designs featuring animals, birds, etc, which can fill the page, without over-lapping, to form a pattern. It's the simplest kind of jigsaw puzzle: all the pieces look alike!
The students were given a few guidelines. They had to make their own tessellation, draw something inside the shape they created, trace the tessellation and inside picture onto a piece of 8 x 11 sheet of paper, then use complimentary colors to finish the piece.
During this lesson the classes discussed the math vocabulary, parallel, perpendicular and congruent, and transformation such as slides, flips and turns.
Enjoy the photographs of a few of the tessellations. The students worked really hard on this project. Maybe your child can show you how it was done.
